Can a Radeon HD 6450 drive 2 monitors?

[jlantier]

Hello,

I have a stock Dell XPS 8300, about a year old. The video card is a Radeon 6450. The OS is Windows 7.

I need a basic dual-monitor setup. I'm not a gamer - about the hardest thing GPU wise is stream TV episodes from Netflix. Mostly what I want to do is be able to dedicate one monitor to a programming IDE and have a second hold an IM client, a web browser tab or three, the Pandora player, and an email window. Basic stuff.

I've just spent 25 minutes in Fry's pawing through racks of cables and adapters, and I can't find anything that will give me the combination of ports from the video card to the monitor. (That may suggest that this isn't the way to do it.)

Anyway, I think it boils down to a couple of questions -

1) Is a Radeon 6450 able to drive two monitors at once, or do I need a different video card?

2) Are the outputs of the 6450 independent of each other? If I'm already using the VGA connector, can I just plug a second monitor into the HDMI port and have a second display? Or is it more complicated than that?

I did finally find an adapter on Amazon for $2.09 (!) that I think will work. I'll try that unless the good people of Toms' Hardware forums tell me otherwise ...

Thanks for your help and comments!

 

[Someone Somewhere]

It will work fine. You can use any of the outputs.

In theory you want to use HDMI, DVI, or DP instead of VGA.

 

[JKatwyopc]

What outputs does the video card have on the back? From what you said it sounds like you have at least HDMI and VGA. Do you also have a DVI output? You should have no problem finding a DVI to VGA adaptor. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119466
An HDMI to VGA adaptor is a little more difficult.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815158333

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Also, what inputs do the monitors have?

 

[jlantier]

The outputs on the video card are, VGA, DVI-D, and HDMI.


The inputs to the monitors are,

Monitor #1 DVI-D, VGA

Monitor #2 VGA, X-Port


Oh, duh ... I think I just figured it out.

Plug monitor #1 into the video card's DVI-D connector

Plug monitor #2 into the VGA Connector


I'd never looked at monitor #1 that closely ...

 

[jlantier]

Yeah, that was it ... DVI "Dual Link" cable to the first monitor and VGA to the second.

Everything's working great! Thanks for your quick responses.

 

[jlantier]

Best answer selected by jlantier.